Too Little, Not Too Late
by LeighSix
Summary: (Alternative Allegiant One-Shot) Tris Prior has entered the Weapons Lab, but she isn't alone. What happens when she is accompanied with Tobias and Caleb? Will the three of them have what it takes to survive? What happens when Tris has already been shot? Will she allow her mother to take her? Read to find out! *Feels are very potential.*


**_Just was re-reading Allegiant while I'm home, and this my own little twist on it. My own little twist of the Weapons Lab scene as it takes place from where Tris lets off the serum._**

**_Read with caution! Feels are potential_**

_Disclaimer: Veronica Roth owns the Divergent series_

Pain was all Tris Prior could feel right now. She had done it, or so she thought she had. Her thoughts were concealed into her mind, as she watched the bullet strike her the second her hand slammed down on the green button.

A vision of an apparition comes near Tris. It looks like her mother, dressed in the same clothes she was last in. Abnegation gray, stained with blood, with her bare arms to show her tattoo. Tris can still see the holes in her mother's shirt; through them she still looks wounded, as her skin is red but she is no longer bleeding, like she is frozen in time to her eyes.

Her hair is tied back in a loose knot, but a few loose strands hang in her face trimming it with a gold shade. Beatrice Prior questions how she is alive, whether she is just delirious or whether there is another reason behind her sudden appearance.

She presses a cool hand to her cheek and smiles. "Hello, Beatrice."

"Am I done yet?" Beatrice's voice sounds like the shattering of breaking glass, something torn from its foundation as if it no longer existed. It's as if Natalie can read her daughter's thoughts, but she sighs.

"Not yet, because someone is here to see you, Beatrice, and the choice of coming with me is yours." Then, as she came, Natalie Prior disappears into a shadow to hide, as the door comes storming in.

His shoes squeak against the floor, but there is another sound of footsteps pounding against the hardwood floor. Beatrice can hear the noise as if it's the only noise in the room besides the sound of her breathing.

"I can't believe you would let her do that!" One voice shouts, his footsteps drawing nearer. "I should kill you, but I can't yet and-"

But the man stops trying to walk into the room. He stumbles back against the wall. His eyes lock on Beatrice lying on the floor, and it feels like someone stabbed him right in the heart. He can't take his anger out on her. "You idiot!" He screams at the boy beside him, Caleb, who was supposed to take out the mission himself. "She didn't accomplish it!"

The man who was screaming stumbles against the death serum again and steps inside pulling the boy in a gray shirt in with him. Just then, David appears with a gun, and aims it at either one of them.

"Oh isn't this sweet? Tobias has come to save someone who's already dead."

Tobias releases a growl, but his eyes stop when he notices her limp body. The limp body of his girlfriend, her shirt stained with blood, but she is still breathing. He's becoming dizzy, not because of the serum, but then, a gun goes off. Tobias feels a hand shoving him backwards with all their strength, and they he slides on the floor.

Tobias can hear his girlfriend wheezing, pain radiating through her eyes. Her mouth is held slightly agape as she watches the terror unfold. Beatrice watches as her father goes to greet him, just as the color drains from his face and a crimson liquid leaks through his head.

"Just like his father, so stupid and so stubborn." Before David can do anything, Tobias stumbles to stand up, but he falls again, the death serum taking the effect on him. He tries his best to crawl to Tris' body, which lay only a few feet away, but then the gun goes off and he feels pain radiating through his side. The bullet barely skimmed him.

He tries to play dead, thinking maybe he can fool David. He turns around for a second, a cackle escaping his lips. "So much for that genetically pure little bitch and her brother and his companion…"

Tobias senses the green button above him. All it needs to do is be set off. With the last bit of his strength, Tobias rises with a quick stand, and slams his hand against the button. This time, a churning sound comes across the room. Tobias notices a gun right underneath the table by where Tris lay. Carefully, he inches his fingers closer and closer to him.

Then, he brings the gun back to him. Tobias spins the barrel around to face David. David raises his gun one last time, and when Tobias pulls the trigger, David does too. Both guns go off at the same time, and this one hits Tobias right below his chest. It was the same heroic death Natalie Prior exhibited, with multiple shots to the torso. Tobias had two bullet holes; one that grazed his shoulder and chipped off part of his skin where the ink formed around his shoulder blade, and the other right underneath his heart.

All Tobias feels right now is pain. It hit him pretty hard. David falls to the floor just like Caleb did, but Tobias' main focus is his bleeding girlfriend beside him. He wants her to survive – but he knows better, oh, he should know better. He was too little too late to save her.

But he's somehow okay with that, too.

"Tris," he barely croaks out, reaching for her hand. In a spur of the moment, Tris grasps on to his hand and turns her body around, letting out a grunt of pain. Her eyes skim him for a second, watching the crimson liquid leak from his shirt.

"Tobias… you… were shot…" Her voice is strained. She coughs and sputters, choking out a few wary words. "You… had… to survive… Evelyn."

Tobias had just reestablished his bond with his mother, who abandoned him and departed to lead the factionless, but she'll understand. She always called Tris temporary, and it infuriated Tobias, but she was the temporary one – and in a way, he was too.

"I know, Tris." He says his voice still calm yet stern. His breathing is faltered and his lungs are on fire. Is this really the end?

From where she lay, Tris can see the dead body of her brother. He was mercilessly killed by David, just because he couldn't have her mother. Tobias finished it. They all did it – everyone else will be free because of them.

Tobias clutches his stomach, not because of the pain form the shot but because he can't breathe. His girlfriend is still facing him, her eyes beginning to droop.

"I hear a churning sound." Tris says, her voice getting quieter by the second. Her eyelids are fluttering, as if she was trying to have a silent conversation with Tobias, one that he can barely see, his eyes fluttering too.

Tobias can't even nod his head. Pain radiates throughout his entire body, like someone had doused him in gasoline. He and Tris did it. They saved everyone else. "Tris, I love you," he says, trying to catch his breath.

Tris' final breath is saying, "I know, you too," and everything goes limp in her body, leaving Tobias to struggle for his final breaths until he can join his love in the afterlife.

Natalie reappears over her daughter, but something is different. Her father is there, a scar embedded against the side of his face where he was shot. Tris knows how she has to go, be with her family.

Tris doesn't know what will happen to Tobias, but she can't think right now. Her brother, Caleb, dressed is his gray shirt and slacks, is standing beside his father. Like father like son, their eyes are a dim hazel with their shaggy brown hair. Tris' mother's blond hair still hangs freely at a few strands.

"I'm done now, aren't I?" The look in her mother's eyes says yes, but her brother nods his head anyway.

"Caleb," Tris' voice is stern and tears fill her eyes. Her brother wraps his arms around her neck and holds her tightly. Both of them weep for a few seconds until they are reminded of the presences of their parents.

But Tris' thoughts wander to Tobias. What if he is still alive? What if he isn't? Why did he come in there in the first place? He basically risked his life to finish something she and Caleb had started.

"I went looking for him, Beatrice. I wasn't going to let you carry this out alone." Caleb explains, but Tris is still at a loss for words.

"You did it, Beatrice. I am so proud of you, and no faction motto can withstand that. You really are grown up." Tris hasn't heard a word since her father last spoke to her, and that before taking the gun and killing Dauntless-mind controlled soldiers so she could get to the control room.

"You saved Tobias," Tris says to her father, who just shakes his head in disbelief. Tris wants to make her father feel better, but it doesn't work that way.

"No Beatrice, you saved Tobias. You saved him from the life he once had. With his mother's departure, and his father's abuse, you saved him. He wouldn't have had this any other way. Tobias knows exactly what it means to be selfless. There is power in self-sacrifice."

Tris tries to steal one last glance at Tobias, hoping maybe she can see his chest still moving, but he lay still, dressed in his Dauntless clothes with a dark black t-shirt, stained with the crimson color that took everyone's lives. The color has fallen from his face. His eyes remain closed. Maybe she'll be the one to greet him.

Tris turns back to her mother, who offers her a hand. Tris accepts, being pulled like a tug of a thread toward her mother's embrace. "Do you mind if I say goodbye?"

"I'll escort you," Caleb says, reaching out for his sister. The two accept each other, walking away from the Weapons Lab. Their eyes skim to the other soldiers, the ones that lay dead but some of them that are alive, are in a state of bewilderment.

"Do you really forgive me, Beatrice?" Caleb's cautious voice asks his sister, who just a few weeks ago sent him to his own execution. Tris nods her head rapidly.

"Caleb, you're my brother and I love you."

As the two reach the main doors, Tris and Caleb are just about to miss Cara explaining to the group what happened.

"Where is everyone?" Amar asks, but there is silence.

Tris can see Cara's head wrapped in a bandage. But that's not what makes Tris hurt. What makes her hurt is the pain in her face when she shakes her head.

"Where are Tris, Tobias and Caleb?" Christina asks. Cara shakes her head.

"Tell us, dammit!" Zeke's voice yells over the group, already breathing heavy. Tris and Caleb give each other a solemn glance.

"Tris took the journey into the Weapons Lab. Tobias took Caleb, and they followed her in. Tris punched in the code, but David shot her. Caleb was shot by David. Tobias set off the serum, but the death serum got to him and he was shot." Cara explains, and I watch as the group begins to tense up.

Tris notices the pain and shock in Evelyn Johnson's face. She drops to her knees, and begins to let out a wail. She lost her son. They never had a chance to form another bond. She never had the chance to be the mother he deserved.

Tris can hear her whimpers as her head is deep in her hands. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry Tobias. I'm sorry Tris."

Tris lets off a smile of satisfaction. Evelyn really does care about her. "I forgive you, Evelyn." Her voice is gentle, but she forgives her.

They innocently lost three lives that day. Tris solemnly sighs, walking over to embrace her friends knowing they can't feel her. Christina hunches over, unable to support her own grief. Cara and Zeke embrace her, and they cry with her. Tris begins to hug each of her friends.

"Thank you, Christina, for everything. You're like the sister I never had." She wraps her arms around her friend's neck and hugs her tightly, knowing she can't feel her or hear her.

"Be brave, Zeke." She says, before giving Zeke a hug and planting a kiss on his cheek. "I'll say 'hello' to Uriah for you and maybe your father if I get to see him."

Tris and Caleb rejoin, only to find they've been joined by their parents. Tris can see the rest of her friends behind her. Al, who jumped the chasm, is the first she sees. He is the first one she embraces.

"I forgive you, Al." She says, and Al nods his head with a gentle Candor smile.

"It wasn't your fault, Tris." He says. "It was mine. I chose to end my life." Al was the coward, not Tris, and she accepts it.

Tris embraces Lynn, Marlene, and watches as Uriah strolls confidently up to her. He embraces her and spins her around off the ground. He had just left Marlene's side for the first time in ages. "You, you really are Divergent, Tris."

Tris embraces Will, who just begins to smile. "Tris, thank you for watching over her." Tris knows who he means. She wouldn't have had it any other way.

"I know she really did love you, Will. You changed her." Tris explains, but under her breath she mutters, "I'm sorry," and Will shakes his head. Tris can see disappointment. Of course he would have wanted to be there for Christina, even during a time like this.

"There was no logical way around that, Tris. It's okay."

Tris turns her head, looking back to the group. Her eyes scan them, noticing the pain in all their faces. She wants to go back, but she can't. There is no turning back. Then, Tris' eyes light up like a fire when she snaps her head like a deep caught in the headlights to the sound of his voice calling her name.

"Tris!" His voice is clear, even from the sounds of cries and muffled voices.

Tobias is standing by the steps of the bureau, and she runs toward him. He meets her halfway, picking her up and spinning her around. She chokes back a sob, and runs her hand along the back of his head. "I'm sorry, Tobias, I couldn't let Caleb do that."

Tobias breaks their contact just to stare at her. His eyes are still as dark as they stay still, but they seem to light up. "Tris, don't you apologize for that do you understand me?"

"But you died, and you left Evelyn." Tris says a hint of sadness in her voice.

Tobias nods his head, his eyes still locked on her. "Yes I did die, but there was nothing for me without you here in this world, Tris Prior."

Tris doesn't say anything. She lifts her mouth to Tobias' and kisses him. Everything in her life up until then had been preparing her for this moment, for the moment to realize that people can be mended, and that they mend each other.

After their passionate moment, Tobias walks hand in hand with his girlfriend to the group. He freezes when he sees Uriah, and nearly chokes back a breath, but Uriah sees him and smiles.

"Tobias, it wasn't your fault." Uriah says, walking over to clasp his shoulder. "You didn't set off the explosion. You didn't kill me."

Tobias seems to relax in his shoulders. "I really tried to protect you, Uriah."

Uriah shakes his head. "You didn't need to." He puts his arm around Marlene, who is covered in scars from her jump off the Hancock Building. Who knows what she really looked like after the impact?

The group begins to head back, including Uriah who walks with Marlene. They're beginning to stop, and then, each of them closes their eyes and disappears, but not before Uriah runs up to Zeke and wraps him in a bro hug. "I'll see you soon, my brother," Tris can hear the words clear as day from Uriah. It's true, that they'll all be together someday.

Someday, they will all be free.

The ones left waiting are Natalie and Tobias, who stands the same as her daughter, who knows Tobias isn't ready to go yet.

"One second," Tobias walks over to his mother, and places a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes are red and puffy and her nose drips. She is overcome with grief.

"Mom, you may not be able to hear me, but I love you. I wasn't going to let her do that alone. All the times the love of my life walked to her death, she wasn't going to unless I was there. I wanted to survive, but I couldn't. This world is no place for me."

Tobias kisses his mother's cheek, and reaches out, touching Zeke firmly on the shoulder. "Be brave, my brother."

He walks back over to his girlfriend, who stands there with her arms down at her sides. She cautiously continues to skim every member of the group.

"Are you ready to go Tris?" Tobias asks her. He opens his arms and smiles, and Tris welcomes herself into his embrace. Tobias kisses her head, and the two of them count to three together.

"One," Tris says, holding his hands.

"Two," Tobias cups his hand against her cheek.

"Three," both of their voices speak in unison, willing and ready to take on whatever the future has in store.

Caleb and Tobias were too little too late to save Tris. Caleb saved Tobias, only buying him another minute, but that's okay.

But they weren't too little too late to spend eternity together.

With Natalie by their sides, the remaining trio takes off into the light, leaving their friends behind to continue their journey, in the hopes, they'll all be together someday soon.

**A/N – I added more because I had time and I wanted to. Just a one-shot alternative of Allegiant! Comments? Reviews? Rates? Probably isn't that great, but it's my take of Allegiant!**


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